Friday, June 27, 2008

So, I like to mess around on CafeMom quite a bit. In fact, I even have a group on there for stay at home moms. I see these people constantly posting ads for a company called "CashCrate," and I have been wondering what it is all about. They claim they get paid to fill out surveys, and they even post copies of the checks they have received so far. I've been passing these ads for months thinking "scam, scam, scam," but the one that finally got me to click was posted by a lady who claimed she made $300 her first month and $1400 her second month. All just for filling out surveys!! She even had copies of her checks, made out in her name there for all to see. Ok, so she had me sold or at least curious!

So I signed up for the site and began taking surveys. I was stunned! I made about $15 in the first 20 minutes. I started thinking, "Oh yeah! This is great! Easy money!!" But, after the first $15 I noticed that the other surveys I took were staying under the "pending" column. I read through the FAQs, and it said some offers can take up to 2 weeks to be credited to your account. It has only been about a week so far, but I am beginning to get a bit impatient. Currently, I have about $40 "pending" and still only the $15 under the"earned" column.

As I have been patiently waiting, I decided to do a little research on CashCrate. I saw several sites saying BEWARE of CashCrate. The main reason most people labeled it a scam was because some offers are free and some want you to sign up for free trials. If you forget to cancel the trial, you get charged! Also, some offers disguised as surveys want you to give your phone #, then at the bottom in small print they say they are going to charge your phone account so much a month for this service. I caught on and did not fall for these, but I can see how many would and then end up mad.

Most surveys require your home address, phone #, and email. So expect to get spammed and called quite a bit. Still, if they actually paid me over $1000 a month, I could maybe live with these. Just make up a new email and get caller id. But, who knows if I will ever be credited my $40, or will they even pay me my earned $15.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

It's late and I'm very tired, so today's blog is gonna be short and sweet (and a little sour.)

Some of you may have heard the country song, "Just Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Vassar....I feel like this is my life today.

For starters, I am up at 12:17am writing my blog : ) My four year old son is sick and has a high fever. My house has toys strewn from one end to the other not to mention my laundry that is quickly piling up. I took my two oldest daughters to playgroup today just to get out of the house for a while. At least I got some adult interaction. (other than dear hubby) After lunch, I took my oldest daughter to get her school uniform only to learn that they are only offering the 10% discount online, so I decided to wait and save a whopping $10!

When I returned home, sadly the magic house fairy had not visited. (I need to call her) I threw a tasty frozen pizza in the oven, fed the kids, and gave the sauce covered baby a bath. I sat her down on my bed, wrapped in a towel, while I grabbed a diaper. As I went to put it on her, my bed was oddly wet. She had peed! All over my brand new feather mattress pad which is still drying, so I must sleep without it.

Over all, it wasn't the greatest day ever, but I guess it could have been much worse. I must confess today was just one of those days where I was thinking "they're lucky I love 'em." : )

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Do you remember when you were a little kid and the big question was "What do you want to be when you grow up..."? I'd always answer something fabulous like a doctor or lawyer not realizing you had to go to college for like 8 years to be one of those! I actually did start college as a pre-med major, but after a few biology classes and a cat dissection I quickly realized it wasn't for me.

I haven't finished college...yet....as I chose to get married and have a family. I tried to go back to school after the birth of my first daughter, but after I had twins I had to give it up for a while (its been 6 years).

The point is that we may have all had a career that we always dreamed of that never quite became a reality. BUT....should that keep us from doing something that we enjoy? Of course not, but it is hard to find a job that you are going to enjoy especially if you want to work from home. As they are looking through my job listings many people ask, "which one would be a good fit for me"? While I may not have the answer to this question for everyone, I thought I would suggest a simple job personality quiz to get you started. There are many out there on the internet, but this one from Monster.com is short and easy. Give it a try! http://resources.monster.com/tools/quizzes/perfectcareer/

Thursday, June 19, 2008

If you work from home, you probably already know how hard it can be. I am married to a wonderful man, but he doesn't seem to realize just how tired I am. I have been staying up late for the last few days trying to get some work done, and of course my one year old daughter still gets up with the sun everyday. I heard her crying this morning, and went to retrieve her from her bed. I brought her back to my bed hoping she would lay there for just a few moments while I closed my eyes. Instead I heard "nose, nose" while having my nose pinched with her wet fingers that had just been in her mouth. What a wonderful way to wake up every morning! Don't get me wrong I love these little moments with her, but I almost certain I would enjoy them much more if I had more than 6 hours of sleep.

Now most of you (especially men) are probably saying, why don't you just go to bed earlier? Oh, I only wish that were a possibility! Besides having chores to do at night and trying to find time to take care of myself (shower), I am also trying to work full time from home (in part time hours). I have been going to bed around midnight every night for the past few days trying to get ahead on some work. My dear hubby falls asleep watching TV around 8pm, but somehow is still snoring at 6am when the baby is poking on his eyes. (She just learned all her body parts)

I'm really not trying to complain. I'm just saying it would be nice to wake up around 10am just once and see that the Starbucks fairy had visited.

Monday, June 16, 2008

First lesson in finding a stay at home job....Don't Be Fooled! Using internet and email, scammers can get a phony ad or job offer out to large amounts of people almost instantly.

Avoid paying for any job or business opportunity. If they are a legitimate company, they should be paying you not the other way around.

These are the most common work from home scams seen by the Better Business Bureau:

ASSEMBLY WORK AT-HOME: Typical Ad -- "Assembly work at home! Easy money assembling craft items. No experience necessary."This scheme requires you to invest hundreds of dollars in instructions and materials and many hours of your time to produce items such as baby booties, toy clowns, and plastic signs for a company that has promised to buy them. Once you have purchased the supplies and have done the work, the company often decides not to pay you because your work does not meet certain "standards." You are then left with merchandise that is difficult or impossible to sell.

CHAIN LETTER: Typical Ad -- "Make copies of this letter and send them to people whose names we will provide. All you have to do is send us ten dollars for our mailing list and labels. Look at the chart below and see how you will automatically receive thousands in cash return!!!"The only people who benefit from chain letters are the mysterious few at the top of the chain who constantly change names, addresses, and post office boxes. They may attempt to intimidate you by threatening bad luck, or try to impress you by describing themselves as successful professionals who know all about non-existent sections of alleged legal codes.

ENVELOPE STUFFING: Typical Ad -- "$350 Weekly Guaranteed! Work two hours daily at home stuffing envelopes."When answering such ads, you may not receive the expected envelopes for stuffing, but instead get promotional material asking for cash just for details on money-making plans. The details usually turn out to be instructions on how to go into the business of placing the same kind of ad the advertiser ran in the first place. Pursuing the envelope ad plan may require spending several hundred dollars more for advertising, postage, envelopes, and printing. This system feeds on continuous recruitment of people to offer the same plan. There are several variations on this type of scheme, all of which require the customer to spend money on advertising and materials. According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, "In practically all businesses, envelope stuffing has become a highly mechanized operation using sophisticated mass mailing techniques and equipment which eliminates any profit potential for an individual doing this type of work-at-home. The Inspection Service knows of no work-at-home promotion that ever produces income as alleged."

MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING: Typical Ad -- "Our products make it possible for people like you to earn more than they ever have in their lives! Soon you can let others earn money for you while you and your family relax and enjoy your affluent lifestyle! No experience necessary."Multi-level marketing, a direct sales system, is a well-established, legitimate form of business. Many people have successfully sold the products of reputable companies to their neighbors and co-workers. These people are independent distributors who sell popular products and also recruit other distributors to join them. On the other hand, illegitimate pyramid schemes can resemble these legitimate direct sales systems. An obvious difference is that the emphasis is on recruiting others to join the program, not on selling the product. For a time, new recruits who make the investment to buy product samples keep money coming into the system, but very few products are sold. Sooner or later the people on the bottom are stuck with a saturated market, and they cannot make money by selling products or recruiting. When the whole system collapses, only a few people at the top have made money—and those at the bottom have lost their investment.

ONLINE BUSINESS: Typical Ad -- "Turn your Home Computer into a Cash Machine! Get computer diskette FREE! Huge Selection of Jobs! No experience needed! Start earning money in days! Many companies want to expand, but don’t want to pay for office space. You save them money by working in the comfort of your home."This is typical of advertisements showing up uninvited in your e-mail—an old scheme advertised in a new way. You pay for a useless guide to work-at-home jobs—a mixture of computer-related work such as word processing or data entry and the same old envelope-stuffing and home crafts scams. The computer disk is as worthless as the guidebook. It may only list free government web sites and/or business opportunities which require more money.

PROCESSING MEDICAL INSURANCE CLAIMS: Typical Ad -- "You can earn from $800 to $1000 weekly processing insurance claims on your home computer for health care professionals such as doctors, dentists chiropractors, and podiatrists. Over 80% of providers need your services. Learn how in one day!"Generally, the promoter of this scheme attracts you by advertising on cable television and, perhaps, by inviting you to a business opportunity trade show at a hotel or convention center. You may be:Urged to buy software programs and even computers at exorbitant prices; a program selling at a software store for $69 might cost you several thousands of dollars.Told that your work will be coordinated with insurance companies by a central computer.Required to pay for expensive training sessions available at a "current special rate" that will be higher in the future, andPressured to make a decision immediately.Most likely, the expensive training sessions are superficial, and the market for your services is very small or nonexistent. The promoter may delay the processing of your job, citing a backlog or mistakes in your work. There may also be no central computer as advertised. You may be left with no way to deliver what you have promised to your clients or customers—if you found any—and with no way to earn any money on you own.

To find a Real Stay at Home Job, search legitimate job listing sites such as mine, www.sahjobs.com. You can also contact me via email at jobs@sahjobs.com if you have any questions.

If you do find a job you think you may be interested in, you can contact the Better Business Bureau in your area for a reliability report. Visit www.bbb.org to find the BBB near you.

The Mom's Guide to Working From Home

Are you a stay at home mom looking to make a little extra dough? Finding a legitimate job to do from home can be difficult. Stop Searching! I have done the work for you. I have the hottest stay at home job listings and tips on how to snag a SAH job you'll love!